Il significante vuoto e l’immaginario patrimoniale del brigante

This article deals with the patrimonialization process of the brigand Giuseppe Villella in his native village Motta Santa Lucia in Calabria. The skull of Villella is the sémiophore of Cesare Lombroso’s discovery of the atavism of the born criminal as well as it is the scientific relic exhibited in the new display of Museum of Criminal Anthropology in Turin. The dissemination of counter-history of Italian unification and the ceremonial re-foundation of the places of memory of the vanquished of Risorgimento by the neo-Bourbon movement have created the symbolic resources for the appropriation of Villella as the brigand representative of the history and memory of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The ethnographic approach provides an in-depth focus on the performative function of the brigand as «empty signifier» in the political construction of the Southern brigand-patriot-partisan. It also brings into view the heritage frictions into the social intimacy of the community of Motta Santa Lucia – il paese del brigante – which were culminating during the realization of the first Festival del Brigante in 2019.

Keywords: Brigand; Empty signifier; Heritage politics; Place branding.